conspiracy theorists

Everyone has heard, and has probably used the term "conspiracy theorist," and the fact of the term being in common use, also indicates that we generally agree on what it means. I saw a movie by that name, and the title character was a raving lunatic who kept his food in thermoses with combination locks to reduce his chances of being poisoned by imaginary enemies.

Regardless of how the stupid movie turned out, what's important here is the common perception people have of someone to whom that label is applied, and just as important, is who it is that applies the label. The common perception is that someone who is labeled a "conspiracy theorist" is suffering from some type of psychological disorder, and that label is usually applied to people by our government, and our news media. The next thing to consider, is that the label is applied to anyone who questions our government's version of events in any matter. Doesn't it logically follow that the media are teaching us to assume that anyone who questions the government is insane? When that label is applied to a person, doesn't it become easy to dismiss everything they say without even hearing it? How convenient for them.
But sadly, I think the main reason people choose to believe the government's version of events despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, is because it's easier, and safer. If you ignore most of the evidence, and accept as plausible whatever ridiculous explanation the T.V. provides, your life remains simple, and you get to sit on your ass and watch more T.V. If on the other hand, you pluck your head from that same ass and realize you've been lied to, as a citizen in a democratic society, you're instantly burdened with being responsible for doing something
about it.
Conspiracy theories arise from evidence. After the government releases an explanation of a particular event, a conspiracy theory is only born because evidence exists to disprove their explanation, or at least call it into question. There's nothing insane about it, unless you define sanity as believing whatever the government tells you. In light of the fact that our government lies to us regularly, I would define believing everything they tell you as utter stupidity.

In July of 1996, flight 800 exploded over Long Island. Shortly after their terrorist explanation failed scrutiny, our government then explained the event by claiming that a faulty electrical system caused a spark that ignited a fuel tank, and the people who doubted this explanation were quickly labeled "conspiracy theorists." More than a hundred witnesses saw a missile travel from the ground up to the plane just prior to its explosion, but rather than being treated as eyewitnesses to an event, they were labeled "conspiracy theorists," which label allowed all subsequent investigation to ignore the strongest evidence in the matter.

Our "investigative" news agencies decided to accept and disseminate the official story, and they helped us forget the U.S. naval station nearby, the fact that missiles were regularly test fired there, and naturally, they paid no heed to more than a hundred "conspiracy theorists" who saw the plane get blown out of the sky by a missile. I believe that the U.S. Navy accidentally shot down flight 800, and that's my belief because it's the most sensible explanation that can be drawn from the available evidence. I'm not theorizing about conspiracies, but there are conflicting explanations of the event, and if the Navy did accidentally blow a passenger plane out of the sky, who would have a motive to lie about it? The U.S. government, or a hundred witnesses? 🙂

Aren't you a bit paranoid?

A bit?? 😆

Yeah I hate it how just because people who dont accept the lies that the u.s. government tells them and questions authorty and does not go along with them, get labeled a conspiracy theorist.Thats what I have been called my whole life because I have a huge interest in the kenneddy assassination and dont accept the offiical version and bury my head in the sand about it like so many others do.Thats pretty much what I have discovered in the years I have looked into it is that even though the evidence is overwhelming that the CIA pulled it off,and there was no proof oswald did it,people dont want to hear the evidence.They dont want to believe it so they ignore it and try to come up with something to convine themselves its not real because the truth is too frightening for them to deal with.They are afrai to acknowlede that we live in a dictatership country here in the states.

Originally posted by Julie
Aren't you a bit paranoid?

errr no he just gots logic and common sense and not afraid of the truth like so many others out there are.

My father worked for the intelligence branch of the navy during the height of the cold war and has always told me to not believe everything I read in the papers. However, if you look close enough, alot of times you can see the truth poking out somewhere.

Yeah, im all open to possibilities of conspiracy theories...always hae been.

I'm also open to Conspiracy theories myself. As some of you recall I made a thread about Secret Societies. I like to keep an open mind to them as long as they have some reasonable logical explanation. But come on! Conspiracy theories claiming that Aliens assasinated JFK are waaaaay too silly and are example of irrational discussions.

yeah i did not like like that show they made some years back which was about aliens that took over the earth because they assassinated jfk.that kind of talk is what gives jfk researchers a bad name.

Originally posted by Julie
Aren't you a bit paranoid?

No....next

Originally posted by WindDancer
I'm also open to Conspiracy theories myself. As some of you recall I made a thread about Secret Societies. I like to keep an open mind to them as long as they have some reasonable logical explanation. But come on! Conspiracy theories claiming that Aliens assasinated JFK are waaaaay too silly and are example of irrational discussions.

the alien bit is silly yes...what about the other theories....why was the bodyguards on the motorbikes guarding the car behind..and not the kennedy car....some people might say that the assasination was allowed to happen
im dont know what happened exactly cos i wasnt there...but some evidence suggests that somethin iffy went on

I totally agree with you, Dean. I think we are fed from the media the version of what they want us to hear. I think the gov't themselves (some brach, maybe CIA) themselves assassinated Kennedy. I think things like that happen so much more than we could possibly imagine....Just like Area 51..

So do you believe there are aliens at area 51 kRaZy777?

Originally posted by dean7879
the alien bit is silly yes...what about the other theories....why was the bodyguards on the motorbikes guarding the car behind..and not the kennedy car....some people might say that the assasination was allowed to happen
im dont know what happened exactly cos i wasnt there...but some evidence suggests that somethin iffy went on

yeah whats interesting about that whole bit is that the dallas police were ordered by the secret service to reduce their protection for two cars on each side of the car to just two and told to drive behind the president so people could have a good view of him.also the newspapers in dallas that day had him going on the parade route down main street but mysteriously the secret service changes the route to where he would have to go down Elm steet and slow the car down at 11 miles an hour which was a direct vilolation against secret service policy.In the movie,Donald sutherland plays a gu by the name of x who in real life is a guy named flectcher prouty who was the laison for the cia and kennedy and he maintains if he wasnt called to go out of the country that day like he was,that he would never have allowed the 13th intelligence army to stand down that day and not provide protection for the president,that they would never have had the bubbletop removed and that his protection deatil would never have allowed there to be open windows from builidngs that day.it was all a planned and coordinated event.

Conspiracy theories are – like religions – often a peculiar kind of culturally accepted delusion.
Just as I have no clue as to which interpretation of God’s word supposedly is the right one, how am I to know which conspiracy theory is supposed to be true? The one with or without the aliens? The one with or without the Freemasons being in league with the devil and masterminding a New World Order?
The one with or without 9/11 being a government plot?

Does the government lie to us? OF COURSE they do. I’ll just say “Weapons of Mass destruction” to anyone who claims otherwise.
And anyone who cares to investigate the assassination of JFK should look up the House Select Committee on Assassinations http://www.archives.gov/research_room/jfk/house_select_committee/committee_report.html
Yes, JFK was PROBABLY the victim of a conspiracy, but who, where and what remains unknown.

THAT – however – does not mean the KGB, CIA, MI5, Mossad, FBI, PET and what have you are out to get YOU!
Just as with religion, conspiracy theories have a flaw – they have NO proof. Nothing.
There’s a fine line between going “Nah, I’m not buying the magic bullet, there was foul play involved in the JFK assassination” and then go “Hah, evil reptile aliens from Bellatrax (please notice the misspelling of Bellatrix and look up the two words in google) are working with world leaders to…. Uhrm… rule the world and steal MY DNA, cause I’m so special to make hybrids and so on.”

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

Thats a good way of putting it TO,
Yea I'll except that something might be up, but it has to make sence!

dont go by the house select committe on assassinations on the jfk assassination,that investigation was every bit a joke as the warren commission,they never had any intention of trying to find out who really did it either.they ignored all evidence that pointed towards the CIA and tried to say the mafia alone did it.

A plane did not hit the pentagon on September 11, 2001.

dont say that...you dont want to be branded a nutter

The reason Conspiracy Theorists have a bad reputatiion is because most of the stuff they spout is utter bilge. They PRETEND to be more intelligent than those who blindly accept what Government tells them, but in my experience they demonstrate no more intelligence at all.

As Omega says, they are rarely backed by anything approaching coherent proof, and- the moon landing one being a case in point here- when a case for them, is made, it is normally so ridiculosuyl flimsy and easy to destroy with simple common sense and intelligence, it was barely worth making in the first place.

An open mind is one thing, but simply reversing your credulity- from believing everyhting the Goverment says, to beleiving evey bad thing said about the Government- is simply a sign of more human folly, and it is certainly more to that area that I find conspiracy theorists tend to be.

I find few things more amusing than an extreme such theorist who considers himself superior to those who do not hold his views, as if he is more perceptive and intelligent, when no such thing is the case.

If conspiracy theorists want to stop being so looked down upon, they should stop doing things that make people look down on them, simple as that.